Review: The House by Christina Lauren

I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Gavin tells Delilah he’s hers—completely—but whatever lives inside that house with him disagrees.

After seven years tucked away at an East coast boarding school, Delilah Blue returns to her small Kansas hometown to find that not much has changed. Her parents are still uptight and disinterested, her bedroom is exactly the way she left it, and the outcast Gavin Timothy still looks like he’s crawled out of one of her dark, twisted drawings.

Delilah is instantly smitten.

Gavin has always lived in the strange house: an odd building isolated in a stand of trees where the town gives in to mild wilderness. The house is an irresistible lure for Delilah, but the tall fence surrounding it exists for good reason, and Gavin urges Delilah to be careful. Whatever lives with him there isn’t human, and isn’t afraid of hurting her to keep her away.

I do love a good creepy book so of course I wanted to read this. Right in time for Halloween, it was a spooky read. The characters were great and the story was really cool. Most importantly, House actually kind of scared me. The writing was fantastic at bringing you right into things. I was able to clearly imagine House and Table and other things moving about. It felt very magical at first, but then becomes scary and very unsettling.

Gavin is a boy who there are many rumors about. He lives in the “haunted house”, he doesn’t have parents, he’s weird, all sorts of stuff. He doesn’t have any friends, but it’s because he in fact does live alone. Well, not really alone, but he doesn’t have parents. House takes care of him though. Anything he needs, House supplies. He is well fed, has anything that he needs such as clothes, books, and other things, and House takes care of him. If he is sick, there is soup made. The fire is going to keep him warm, and lights turn on and off as he needs them. Even Piano taught him how to play. Gavin has never known anything else and is happy living there. That is until he Delilah comes into his life. Or back into his life I should say. She makes him happy and he can see a future with her. He is falling in love with her. He even brings her home and introduces her to House. That’s where things start to go very bad. House isn’t about to let someone else have Gavin, and it will do whatever it has to so he will never think about leaving.

Delilah has just returned from a fancy boarding school because her Grandmother is too ill to take care of her anymore or pay for the school. Her parents aren’t very attentive and she feels like they just really don’t care if she is there one way or another. Of course, they have rules for her and are a bit strict about boys and curfew though. When she starts attending school again at home, she instantly zeroes in on Gavin. He has changed a lot since they were younger, and she is very interested. They start spending time together and then it begins turning into more. She is at first fascinated with his home, but still a bit nervous. She has good reason, as House starts doing some really creepy things and leaving her warning messages. She tries to not be paranoid about it, but soon realizes that her life may actually be in danger. She’s a smart girl and quite brave. She is willing to fight house if it means getting Gavin out of there and keeping them safe.

This book has the perfect pace to ease you into things. It starts off very charming and cute with Gavin and Delilah getting to know each other and slowly progressing to falling for each other. It also has a good slow build up to House pretty much going insane. It was very creepy at times, mostly because I was just imagining how messed up some of the things happening were. There is much more to the story than Delilah and Gavin’s relationship and House being jealous though. Delilah’s best friend is a big part of the story, and learning about Gavin’s parents. I thought it was really well done and a great read for anytime, but especially close to Halloween. I highly suggest picking this up if you have any interest in this type of book, or even if you don’t and it just sounds like it might be something fun to try.

3.5 Hot Espressos

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Amy

I'm no good at this, but I'm a mom of one little girl who really thinks she is a princess. I love reading all sorts of books (horror being a favorite genre of mine), love meeting new people, drinking lots of coffee, and eating chocolate. If you want to know anything else about me, just ask.

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